Immanuel Christian Volleyball: Lady Crusaders' season ends in second round

Thursday

Nov 3, 2016 at 12:01 AMNov 3, 2016 at 10:25 PM

Christopher Livingston Sports Editor senorlivingston

The Immanuel Christian Lady Crusaders season ended with a loss to the Lake Arrowhead Christian Eagles 3-0 Thursday night at Kerr McGee Center.

However, there was a silver lining: the second-round CIF-Southern Section Division 10 playoff match happened at home, something rather unusual for the Lady Crusaders.

“It was awesome; this is surreal to me,” said Immanuel head coach Todd Hopkins. “It was something I always wanted to facilitate for groups that I coached, because when I was in high school, it was some of the coolest things I was a part of. Being able to compete and play, we have to have everything fall in line for us, and this was the first step, getting a home game.”

The Eagles won the first set 25-10, then threatened to run away with the second frame by just as big of a margin. However, the Lady Crusaders benefited from a mid-set rally to come within six, but Lake Arrowhead continued its run to close out the set 25-15.

After putting up seven points in a row to begin the third frame, the Lady Crusaders began to light up the scoreboard to keep the match close. However, crucial errors tipped the scales in the Eagles’ favor, as they were able to close out the final frame 25-15 to advance to the quarterfinals.

“When you play a team that’s not fundamentally ready, you can have a bit of an advantage in the sense that if you make a mistake, you can recover,” Hopkins said. “Against this team, if you make a mistake, they’re ready to capitalize and put it right back at you. If you continue to make those mistakes, they can beat you. That’s what well-coached volleyball teams do.”

Hopkins noted that the Eagles had a different tactic than what he prepared for, but shook off any negative aspects of it, noting that the scheme change allowed Immanuel to be uncharacteristic itself.

“We prepared for their best hitter to be an outside hitter and she played middle,” he said. “But it matched up well against us in how our defense set up anyway and we started getting some touches and some blocks.

“Our defense has never been set up to block a lot of teams. Our defense was designed to slow the ball down, get it up, get touches and play smarter volleyball.”

The Lady Crusaders finish the 2016 season with an overall record of 14-7-1, 8-2 in Hi-Lo League play.